With a view to serve the industry better by extending more windows for regulatory clearance and monitoring, the health ministry is planning a slew of measures including upgrading of two sub-zone offices into zonal offices and creating two sub-zones, besides setting up dedicated pharma cargo zones at airports.

The existing two CDSCO sub-zones of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will be upgraded to be zones, thus taking the total number zones to six. The new sub-zones will be based in Bangalore and Chandigarh. "The Bangalore office will be opened in April itself and preparations are almost over. Chandigarh office will be catering to the regions of Punjab and pharma hub of Himachal Pradesh," DCGI Dr Surinder Singh told Pharmabiz.

He said the moves have already begun on a priority basis to take over the new building from the CPWD in Hyderabad. "It is going to be a big building of one lakh sq ft with state-of-the-art facilities. That is going to be one of the key agendas for the year. The building, going to be better than the FDA Bhavan, will also house modern labs and training centres for the staff in different areas like medical devices," the DCGI said.

The health ministry is setting up an expert panel to work out the details of the proposal to set up pharma cargo zones at the airports of Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Besides, another cargo zone will come up at Nhava Sheva port at Navi Mumbai. "We are in consultation with the civil aviation ministry and the Port Trust on the modalities. Details will be finalised in consultation with them. We have also started consultations with industry and airport developers GVK and GMR," he said.

The cargo zones will have dedicated storage centres for drugs that are imported and exported. The facilities would be worked out depending on the proposed volume of medicines handled. It will prevent the possibility of cross-contamination and drugs will be stored at different temperatures as prescribed to ensure efficacy. Almost 90 per cent of the country's pharma exports are through airports.